A Call to Action: Non-Fiction Leaders in Dialogue
Description
The golden era of documentaries is at an end and what comes next is one of the most fiercely debated topics in our industry. Join us as we welcome Laura Kim, Carrie Lozano, Justine Nagan, and Keri Putnam for a timely discussion on the state of affairs within non-fiction filmmaking. Leveraging their professional experience to explore issues surrounding production and exhibition, economic paradigms, and artistic innovation, this group will look to the horizon for opportunities to engage in collective action. Following Putnam’s Friday presentation of her recent study on audience behavior and viewing habits, this group dialogue will explore the necessary steps our industry must take to improve creative collaborations, artistic control, and distribution opportunities.
—Jessie Fairbanks
As Participant’s EVP of Marketing, Co-Head of Campaigns & Engagement, Laura Kim contributed on the company’s behalf to campaigns for Academy Award®-winning American Factory (Festival 2019), A Fantastic Woman (2017), Spotlight (2015) and Citizenfour (2014), as well as All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Doc Stories 2022), Descendant (2022), Flee (Doc Stories 2021) and The Look of Silence (2014). Prior to Participant, Kim founded Inside Job, a marketing/distribution consultancy involved with numerous award winning titles such as Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida (2013), Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing (Festival 2013), Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell (Festival 2013), and many more.
Kim serves as a Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, on the Board of Directors for Film Independent, and is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the International Documentary Association.
Carrie Lozano is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, and media executive. She is currently President and CEO of ITVS. She was previously director of Documentary Film and Artist Programs at the Sundance Institute. Lozano was also a documentary executive at Al Jazeera America and a senior producer of the network’s investigative series “Fault Lines,” where her team garnered numerous honors including an Emmy, a Peabody, and several Headliner Awards. Among other work, Lozano led BAVC Media’s MediaMaker Fellowship and was a lecturer in the Documentary Program at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Justine Nagan is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary producer and creative media executive. She is currently Actual Films’ Head of Production and is Executive Producing their growing slate. Recently, she EPed In Waves and War (2024) and produced The White House Effect (2024), which premiered at Telluride in 2024. Prior, she EPed Make A Splash (2022) for ESPN, as well as the company’s first foray into episodic production, Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever (2023) for Marvel on Disney+. Justine previously served as the Executive Director of American Documentary, and an EP on its signature series, POV (PBS) and America Reframed (World Channel).
Keri Putnam is a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center for Media researching the challenges and opportunities facing independent film in the US. She is also a film and television producer through her company Putnam Pictures. She is an independent board director of AMC Entertainment and a board member, consultant, and advisor to several media companies, start-ups, and nonprofit organizations. Putnam’s previous jobs include CEO of Sundance Institute, President of Production at Miramax Films, and EVP at HBO Films.
